Openmoko Freerunner - The Saga Continuums

[speculatrix]

see post by dhns for clarification and corrections.

apologies for repeating reports elsewhere blindly

---


http://www.engadget.com/2009/04/06/openmok...-staff-slashed/

http://www.linuxdevices.com/news/NS8568412362.html

[sds]

While this is very sad, indeed, some valuable lessons could be drawn out of it.
Briefly and imprecisely: It certainly comes to show the challenges of steering a completely open development both hardware- and software-wise with no viable carrier-acceptable business plan, in this imperfect world.

Just look at the struggles of the arguably less open Google Android with the carriers (e.g. regarding tethering).
Android SDK is already at version 1.1 BTW and both my G1 phones  (one of which is the dev version) perform flawlessly.

[dhns]

No, that is not sad - the title of this thread it is simply wrong.

The Neo Freerunner is still in production, on sales and in operation. And the open software projects continue. Only the successor GTA03 (AFAIK did not yet have an official name) is no longer developed by an internal Openmoko team.

Currently, there are also activities to put the GTA03 (or however it will be called) development on a broader basis. Like e.g. www.amsat.org is developing and launching satellites.

Even this forum would not exist if there would not have been so many lovers of the good old Zaurus after it really went out of production.

If possible, I want to suggest to edit the title of this thread.

-- hns

[speculatrix]

@dhns, I have edited the subject and highlighted your post.

[dhns]

No, that is not sad - the title of this thread it is simply wrong.

The Neo Freerunner is still in production, on sales and in operation. And the open software projects continue. Only the successor GTA03 (AFAIK did not yet have an official name) is no longer developed by an internal Openmoko team.

Currently, there are also activities to put the GTA03 (or however it will be called) development on a broader basis. Like e.g. www.amsat.org is developing and launching satellites.

Even this forum would not exist if there would not have been so many lovers of the good old Zaurus after it really went out of production.

If possible, I want to suggest to edit the title of this thread.

-- hns

It is time to highlight that this was still not the end of the story:

http://www.linuxfordevices.com/c/a/News/Go...Openmoko-GTA04/

[speculatrix]

I have updated the title of this thread to correct the misinformation.

[koan]

continuums ?

I wouldn't mind a GTA04, but not at those prices!

[speculatrix]

continuums ?

a reference to Red Dwarf ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dad_(Red_Dwarf) )

[koan]

Oh no, I've lost my geek credentials now.

What should I do ? Quote Monty Python ?

[dhns]

continuums ?

I wouldn't mind a GTA04, but not at those prices!

So please help to bring down the price.

Prices are determined by component and labour cost. And both go automatically down if the number of units in each batch increases. So the only way we know to get that price down is to get more people interested and involved.

-- hns

[Dromede]

This might be a bit naive of a question... But how is GTA04 any better than an average android or WinMo phone with similar specs and an unlocked bootloader?

[dhns]

This might be a bit naive of a question... But how is GTA04 any better than an average android or WinMo phone with similar specs and an unlocked bootloader?

You get the schematics and a description of all components. So you *can* write and modify the drivers without much reverse engineering efforts. And, there are solder pads so that you can develop hardware extensions. Or even order a variant with B2B connectors to change the display. So it is much more open and flexible and easier to modify.
There are also real community driven software stacks not under the control of big sponsors: QtMoko, SHR.

-- hns